


Hearts and kisses

by Noches



Category: GOT7, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Medical, Angst, Fluff, Jeongguk has a questionable taste in men, M/M, hospital au, namjin - Freeform, yoonkook
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-09-21 07:58:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17039855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noches/pseuds/Noches
Summary: When you hook up, you usually forget about the stranger in your bed as soon as they go home. Well, Jeongguk has probably the worst luck because it turns out his one night stand is the poster boy of a hospital he has just started to work at.





	1. Ready to rise

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first actual, real, long fic that I'm publishing. I'm a little nervous but hell, here we are! Biggest thanks to my beta, Yunie, who puts up with my grammatical errors (since English isn't my first language yikes). I'd also like to thank Ibbs, Gwen, Evan, and Honey for being so encouraging, you're my angels uwu
> 
> I'll add more tags as necessary

_Celebrate minor successes,_ Jeongguk's mother had always said _, _and really go all out when your success is great_._

But this was probably not the type of going all out she had in mind, as Jeongguk had already downed three shots of vodka, another  three of tequila, washing everything down with a bottle of soju — and, well, he was piss drunk.

“That seat taken?” growled a husky yet comforting voice from behind. A handsome, perfect, broody heartthrob made his way to Jeongguk. Look at him, with his leather jacket and ripped jeans, and that sweet, sweet ass… The tight pants looked like they belonged on him, cupping the bottom better than anything else Jeongguk had seen in his life (well, maybe Jeongguk's hands could look better but that's yet to be found out).

“Is all yoursss,” Jeongguk slurred, gesturing towards the barstool. The broody heartthrob took a seat and immediately downed his previously ordered shot, then another.

“What are we drinking to?” he asked. His eyes were sharp, despite the alcohol — for some reason he just looked smart, in a weird way. Jeongguk noticed a cute button nose that he just wanted to boop till the end of time.

“Start of a career, aaand end of my sex life,” Jeongguk replied, raising his glass and drinking more vodka. The newcomer laughed while nodding before taking a sip of bourbon with ice. “Say… wanna be my last? Let's get out of here and go to my place, is not far, and my mattress is _really_ comfortable.”

“Sure,” the man nodded, a smirk tugging on his lips; he was dangerously sexy, like a damn underwear model.

The two reached Jeongguk's hotel room (how he managed to get it open was a mystery, but it might have something to do with the heartthrob's help, his hands were so steady). Immediately he got pinned to the wall, sloppy kisses and moans filling the air. Clothes were haphazardly thrown on the ground in an attempt to get naked faster.

The stranger licked down Jeongguk's chest to his nipple and sucked on it, locking gazes.

“Nnn… wait, I-” Jeongguk mumbled, blush creeping up his face. “I didn't douche…”

“So?” the heartthrob quirked his eyebrow. “Condoms are made for a reason.”

Jeongguk sighed in relief and nodded as he made himself more comfortable.

* * *

 

A strong, dull headache woke Jeongguk up; well, that, and his blaring alarm. 5:30am, the start of a new day, the start of Jeongguk's nursing career, and the start of his new life.

He grunted as he reached for a bottle of water that should be laying on his bed, but instead he patted the soft skin of his last night’s hookup. Another grunt escaped the nurse's throat when he got up and nudged his broody heartthrob awake.

“Listen, I'm going to go shower, and when I get back, you won't be here, so thanks for last night, and, uh, bye,” he said when he noticed the heartthrob opened his eyes.

“You're kicking me out?” the man asked, chuckling groggily. His voice was _deep_. Damn.

“Yeah, I am,” Jeongguk nodded and turned around to head to the bathroom.

He took a quick shower, brushed his teeth, and then got back to his bedroom. Sure enough, the broody heartthrob was gone.

“Thank God,” Jeongguk whispered.

* * *

 

When he entered the locker room for nurses in Seoul National University Hospital, he spotted an empty cubicle above a coded locker, along with a clothes cubicle underneath. He looked around, admiring the new place.

“Uh. Hello, I'm new here, is that locker free?” he called out.

A tall nurse turned around. “Oh. Uh, we…we keep this one empty. You can take the one right next to mine, if you'd like,” the tall nurse said. “I'm Kim Yugyeom, from the ER.”

“Jeon Jeongguk, newly licenced. I'm training to become a scrub nurse.” The men bow to each other politely.

A few more people were busy putting on their scrubs. It wasn't as hectic as Jeongguk thought it would be — in fact, it was chill. But maybe that was just the calm before the storm.

“Where did you have your clinicals?”

“In Busan National, that's where I got my degree, and the letters of recommendation,” Jeongguk replied, taking off his clothes and changing into baby blue scrubs. He put on a printed scrub jacket (bunnies, it's always bunnies, that was his thing).

“That's a big achievement,” Yugyeom smiled at the new nurse. He perked up at the sight of another nurse entering the locker room. “Oh, hi Jinyoung hyung.”

“Hello,” Jinyoung mumbled, putting his cup of coffee on the table in the corner of the room.

“He's a senior scrub nurse so you can learn a lot from him,” Yugyeom smiled again.

“I'm Jeongguk,” the man bowed to Jinyoung, and he bowed back. “I'm looking forward to working with you.”

Two more nurses came into the room chatting away; they greeted the gathered people and got back to their conversation.

“That's Jackson from peds, and Jaebum — the charge nurse of oncology. The rest is getting off shift in thirty minutes,” Yugyeom explained. He went up to the roster and smiled to Jeongguk. “Looks like you're with me in the ER. Let's go.”

They went down the hall into an elevator to level 0, where the ER (along with the burn unit), a free clinic, admissions, and ICU were located. Upon entering the ER, they were greeted with a few occupied beds with nurses rotating from patient to patient.

“How was your night? Slow?” Yugyeom asked a redhead woman as he looked over the charts. “Okay, not slow… Jeongguk, look at that, dude came in with seven knives stuck in him… damn, how did that happen?”

“His fiancé went rogue. She's admitted in psych now, restrained and under surveillance,” the redhead explained. She looked at Jeongguk and smiled. “You're new here, I've never seen you. I'm Hyuna, charge nurse in here.”

“Jeongguk, newly licensed.”

“Don't tell that to patients, they're gonna freak out and won't let you touch them,” she advised and then waved them goodbye.

The two nurses waved back and started working. Charts, charts, and more charts. For a moment there was only a murmur of the ER and the sound of pens running across paper.

“You know, I met a hot guy at a bar. I kicked him out the next morning but, god, he was my perfect broody heartthrob… he really was.”

“Gross, be grossly infatuated somewhere else,” Yugyeom made a face at Jeongguk. “You don't tell that to a guy who last got laid a month ago.”

“That's just…sad.”

“No shit. Every time I say I'm a nurse I just get weird looks.”

“Then don't tell them,” Jeongguk shrugged, checking off lists in the file.

“And live in a lie? No thanks.”

Jeongguk looked over the rest of the charts and orders, and when he finished he turned them over. It looked like it was going to be a peaceful day. Secretly, Jeongguk knocked on wood. As much as he loved aiding patients, he knew how terrible it felt to be on the receiving end in a hospital, and how scary the experience can be without any familiar face to turn to. He looked up and saw a new patient coming in. Following his assignment,  he quickly went up to the bed and smiled at her welcomingly. She didn't reciprocate, but it was okay. The hospital is, after all, a scary, scary place if you're a patient.

He gathered basic information: name, age, the issue she was having that brought her to the ER; and then gave an EKG as a standard procedure.

Upon hearing there's chest pain he immediately went up to a doctor who was free. His name tag said Kim Taehyung. From the colour of the scrubs he could tell that he was either a surgical intern or a resident (it was dark grey, very practical).

“Shortness of breath, chest tightness, and pain in the neck… I'll check her out.”

Jeongguk nodded and got back to the desk where Yugyeom was filling up a chart. He had neat handwriting, completely opposite to what Jeongguk usually saw in doctors despite the pleas across the country to make their notes cleaner for the sake of clarity and safety of the patients… and the hospital. Suing is bad for hospitals, very bad. It can break the entire facility into pieces.

“You know, we have some unwritten rules here,” Yugyeom said, signing off another column. “You might find them useful.”

“Sure, what are they?”

“Number one: don't screw the doctors. Not the interns, not the residents, and especially not the attendings. Do you wanna know why?” Yugyeom made a small pause to wait for Jeongguk to nod. “They're selfish bastards in private life, all of them. They pour so much empathy and attention onto patients that they barely have anything left afterwards. The surgeons are the worst. And, you don't want to date a med student, right?”

Jeongguk laughed and nodded.

“Number two, be nice to the patients even if they're insufferable.”

“Oh I know that one, it's easy for me. I don't really get emotional on the job,” the new nurse shrugged. He accepted a chart from Taehyung, who then told the nurse at a desk to page someone named “Min Yoongi” before getting back to the patient.

“Number three, be nice to the charge nurses because they _will_ make your life miserable if you're not.”

“And that's it?” Jeongguk chuckled and looked at the orders.

“Yep, that's it,” Yugyeom confirmed before Jeongguk headed off to draw blood for tests. He filled up a few vials before he heard the door to the ER slam open.

_Oh no._

“Where the hell are my labs? Do you think I'm playing right now? Do you want to be my student or do you prefer to stay ordinary like the rest of this damn world?”

His perfect, broody heartthrob from the bar was currently giving a severe tongue-lashing to some shaking intern. Taehyung stood by the bed, observing the situation with an amused smirk.

“Off my sight. Don't come back until you have the labs,” he said and turned to Taehyung. “What do you got for me?”

“It looks like it could be an early stage of a heart attack or something cardiovascular, but we can't be sure until we get some results from screening,” Taehyung explained.

“All right,” the doctor nodded, and then saw Jeongguk collecting the vials. “Order an angio, stat.”

Jeongguk scrambled back to the desk. _This can't be happening. Please let it be just a dream. A sick figment of his overactive imagination._

“Oh my god. I think I broke rule number one,” he whispered, covering his face.

* * *

 

“So… you’re saying that your broody heartthrob is Min Yoongi?” Yugyeom asked a few hours later, chewing on a sandwich he picked up in the cafeteria. He watched Jeongguk fight with a piece of fish (to buy himself some time) while waiting for an answer, and when it didn't come, he shook his head. “You know what his nickname is? Dracula. We call him Dracula.”

“Dracula?” Jeongguk choked on his fish. “Why?”

“He's… demanding and will suck the soul out of you. But he has the right to be that way,” the ER nurse shrugged.

“How is that even remotely excusable?” Jeongguk asked, wiping his mouth with a tissue, and dabbing sauce off the scrubs.

“Oh, he's just the shining star of cardiology, and a hospital poster boy that manages to get all the funding for research. You really don't know him?”

Jeongguk shook his head, “No clue. In Busan we had our own shining stars; our head of cardio was sweet. And we didn't really have nicknames.”

“Boring,” Yugyeom decided and got up to get back to the ER.

Jeongguk sighed and finished eating his lunch while thinking about Yoongi. Was he really a superstar? He seemed like a normal dude in the bar. A normal dude with an amazing ass. But in the pit he looked so serious and ominous, scolding a terrified intern. So what's the truth?

“Jeongguk,” the said man jumped in his chair as he felt a hand on his arm. “A word.”

Raspy voice, big veiny hands — must be the heartthrob. Jeongguk followed Yoongi out of the cafeteria into the stairway. The head of cardio leaned on the wall, looking at Jeongguk with an indescribable expression, before he spoke up.

“I didn't know you were working here,” he said calmly.

“Oh, no. We're not gonna talk about it.”

“About the fact that we hooked up, or that you kicked me out first thing in the morning?”

“We're not going to talk about either of those. This is a hospital, it's a workplace for both of us and I plan to remain on professional terms with you and the rest of the staff,” Jeongguk stated his intentions with his arms crossed.

“Good to know we're on the same page,” Yoongi agreed, giving Jeongguk a small smile.

“Good. Now, if you have anything to discuss about the patient, I'm all ears.”

“That would be all,” the surgeon nodded.

“Good.”

“Good.”

An awkward silence. Jeongguk moved to get back to the cafeteria at the same time Yoongi did, so he tried to let him pass ahead but apparently they share one single braincell, and Yoongi moved to the same side, blocking Jeongguk. Finally Yoongi left first, and then, upon seeing that the heartthrob is gone from the hall, the nurse went back inside the cafeteria to get his jacket and a few papers, and make space for others.

_Wow, that was embarrassing._

* * *

 

At 7pm Jeongguk's shift finally ended, so he headed to the locker room. He poked his head through the door but saw that Yugyeom was staring at the empty cubicle on the opposite side. The one they leave empty on purpose. He sensed that it's not the best time to interrupt the silence so he backed off, and almost trampled Yoongi in the process.

“Oh, excuse me,” Jeongguk said. “Are you looking for Yugyeom?”

“No, I was looking for you. You're done with your shift?”

“Yeah, I have already passed my cases to another nurse,” he replied. “Did you need me for anything?”

“No. I was… just checking up how you're doing on your first day,” Yoongi looked away. _That's the tough Min Yoongi?_ Jeongguk thought. _If anything he acted like a kitten._

Jeongguk thanked him with a smile and then turned around to go into the lockers. Luckily Yugyeom was almost done dressing, so the nurse didn’t have to explain himself. It also seemed that Yugyeom wasn’t aware of the conversation between Yoongi and Jeongguk, which the latter found rather relieving, because he really didn’t feel like talking about and dissecting over and over.

“Goodnight,” Yugyeom mumbled — his voice sounded kind of stuffy but Jeongguk stopped himself from inquiring.

With that, his first day was over. At last.

* * *

 

He laid in bed, staring at the ceiling in his hotel room. He'll need to search for a place to live in. Maybe rent an apartment with some other nurse or intern… He'd have to take a look at the message board, they're always cluttered with ads, so it shouldn't be difficult… right?

Right.


	2. Be gentle with me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to my wonderful beta Yunie, who puts up with my grammar and rants uwu
> 
> Heavily inspired by the song "be gentle with me" by the boy least likely to

The next weeks passed by in a relatively peaceful manner. No unusual drama (save for some interns running amok in the morgue, fighting for cadavers to practice on. Yoongi put them on probation; serves them right), and a few screwed up tests. It felt weird, being a little younger than the interns and yet better knowing how to draw blood or start central lines. Perhaps it was the fact that he spent more time with the patients previously — he had clinical rounds in his hometown during university and volunteered in a nursing home back in Busan. But then again, the new doctors should know how to do simple procedures like inserting a cannula or installing a urological catheter. It's not rocket science.

“Can you take Heejin to her mother?” Taehyung, the intern Jeongguk was working with today in NICU, asked. “She's stabilized finally.”

“Right away,” Jeongguk nodded and finished up the chart he was holding. He passed it to the nurse sitting at a desk and then went up to the incubator.

The preemie was breathing steadily without all the tubes and wires so she didn't have to be kept in intensive care unit.

“Hi there, buddy… you're gonna see mummy now, how do you feel about that?” Jeongguk whispered to the baby as he pushed the incubator outside the room, past the heavy door and into the ob/gyn ward. “Yeah, I know, it's a big day but you look really good so don't worry. She was watching you, like, all of the time, we had to shoo her out of here.”The mother was sitting up in bed, an IV drip slowly going down. When the door to her room opened, she looked up and smiled at Jeongguk and the baby. 

“I’m sure Min Yoongi told you that she has stabilized, her heart beats on its own, she can breathe properly without any machines helping her, so now you can hold her for a little while,” Jeongguk said, smiling back at the patient.

“Yeah, I got the good news,” she said, getting off her bed; she leaned on the IV stand a little as she walked slowly to the incubator. “I'm so glad.”

Jeongguk nodded in agreement, wished her good luck and then went back to NICU, mentioning to the nurses in the maternity ward that the mother had been reunited with her child. Once he went past the door to NICU, he looked up from his chart to see Min Yoongi chatting with Taehyung. They chuckled about something and it left Jeongguk breathless. He shook off the weird feeling in his stomach, trying to digest the butterflies.

The man cleared his throat a little to get rid of those thoughts and put the chart on the desk a little too forcefully.

“Good morning, doctor,” Jeongguk gave Yoongi a polite smile.

Yoongi replied with a small bow, “Morning. So, anyway, I'm performing an aneurysm repair on a newborn, so if you want to watch, you can go ahead.”

“Oh, can I scrub in?” Taehyung asked. “I don't want to just watch.”

“No, I'm getting my resident on that surgery.  _ She _ wants to specialise in cardio, not you,” Yoongi replied curtly before walking away. Jeongguk felt a little ignored — Yoongi treated him as if he was air. Totally uncalled for.

“Bummer,” Taehyung sighed to Jeongguk. “How am I supposed to operate if nobody wants me to scrub in often enough? I mean, I'm going to be a resident soon, you know?”

“You gotta fight for it,” Jeongguk advised. “But don't be too pushy. But still, stand your ground. Not too firmly though. You can be…a little much.”

“Hey, I'm not that bad,” Taehyung whined. “I'm a great surgeon! I can do great things, but I'm getting babied.”

Jeongguk couldn't come up with a reply so he just shrugged and began charting away.

He was generally adjusting well to his new workplace, although he still couldn’t get used to this task. He knew that it was part of the job, but oh my god, there was always so much to write, that Jeongguk's genetic predisposition of early onset carpal tunnel syndrome will be almost inevitable if this keeps on. 

Jeongguk huffed and brushed his hair away from his forehead. It was getting long again.“Are you still living in a hotel?” Taehyung asked, pulling Jeongguk out of his own mind.

“Yeah, but I need to find a better place soon,” Jeongguk replied with a small sigh. “Have you seen anything on the board?”

“Actually, now that you mention it, yeah. There are two rooms open for rent in an apartment building opposite the hospital, like really, really close to here. Two tenants are moving so they're looking for a replacement since the third one wants to stay,” Taehyung answered, flipping through a thick file of procedures. “I got the Kakao ID to one of the tenants and they seem pretty chill.”

Jeongguk looked at Taehyung. “Don't you know who they are?”

“Not really, I don't mind it much. And the rent is pretty cheap.”

“Well, as long as they're not serial killers…” Jeongguk shrugged a little before getting back to work. 

He went to check up on the tiny humans he had under his care; he put on new IV bags, noted whether any newborn needed a diaper change, after that he checked the vitals, charting the status, and finally he got back to the desk. 

“I've already deposited my money, if you're curious,” Taehyung said, continuing their conversation from before. “So I'm moving probably this weekend.”

Jeongguk sighed. “I don't have much choice other than move in with you, huh. Alrighty, let's get it.”

Taehyung shot Jeongguk his signature boxy smile. Honestly, it was very adorable so no wonder the intern almost always had his way — it's easy to fall for those puppy eyes and a playful grin.

Other than the fact that Jeongguk had to check up on the kids every thirty minutes, the few hours before lunch flew by quickly in NICU; no codes, no drama — so far.

* * *

 

“I just don't get it,” Jeongguk mumbled to Yugyeom, his mouth full of a sandwich. “I don't get the excitement about Peds. Like, sure, kids are cute, or whatever, but it's so boring, I thought NICU would be more…challenging.”

“I hate Peds man, it's so annoying,” Yugyeom agreed with an eye roll. “You need to deal with idiot parents, shitty kids, and those damn moody teenagers. Oh my god, I don't think I was that bad when I was, like, sixteen.”

“Right? You're lucky you're in the ER so often, you don't have to deal with this whole thing,” Jeongguk scoffed, losing all appetite. He pushed the sandwich away from him and decided to drink his (apparently) ungodly sweet coffee. “Oh yeah, I've found a place to live. Well, technically, Taehyung found a place for us.”

“Are you throwing a housewarming party?” Yugyeom teased. 

“Ugh, don't be gross.”

“I'm inviting myself over,” Yugyeom stated with a wry smile

“Piss off,” Jeongguk mumbled, and checked his pager that had just started beeping. “The hell…?”

He abandoned his unfinished sandwich on the table and dashed towards the elevator. He almost punched the button, trying to make the damn thing come up faster. When it finally opened, the nurse choose level 2, the surgical wing; he tapped his foot impatiently until the door opened. Jeongguk sped to the the room 334, completely out of breath. 

“You paged me?” he asked. 

Min Yoongi was calmly examining a patient with a stethoscope. When he was done he looked up and nodded with a small smile. 

“You ran all the way here?”

“You paged 911, that's what I do when there's an emergency. Do you need me for any urgent patient care?” Jeongguk huffed while fixing his disheveled hair.

“Not exactly,” Yoongi replied.

“Then? What is it?” Jeongguk couldn't believe that the man made him run like crazy just to give him mundane orders. Universe must hated him today.

“I thought I could get you out of Peds and into the OR. I need a scrub nurse right now but nobody's available.”

Maybe the universe didn't hate him after all.

“I'll prep the room,” Jeongguk said with a huge smile. That would be his first time in the new hospital so naturally he was excited; he almost bumped into dozen people and one gurney on the way to the operating room. 

Soon enough he was standing by the sinks and scrubbing his hands with a brush. The hospital rules set the time at four minutes and thirty seconds, but Jeongguk liked to stay on the safe side and washed up for five. Soon Yoongi joined him, a colourful surgical cap tied securely on his head, with hair tucked neatly under.

“Busy day?” The older asked, not looking away from his hands. “I've been giving consults all day.”

“It's been alright,” Jeongguk shrugged. He wiped his hands with a towel before stepping into the OR where the rest of the team had already gathered.

“So you won't even engage in small talk with me?” Yoongi asked while putting on a mask and gloves.

“I am engaging.”

“That looks more like wanting to get rid of me the quickest possible.”

Jeongguk rolled his eyes. “I told you, I'm not interested in anything other than a professional relationship.”

“I'm asking about work, not your personal life,” Yoongi pointed out before turning to the anaesthesiologist. “Okay, prep everything.”

The man turned a few knobs in the anaesthesia machine while Jeongguk began stating the name of the patient and the procedure for the last time before the anaesthesiologist was to put her under. Once everything was confirmed, he nodded to Yoongi.

“Alrighty, let's get this party going,” cheered the energetic anaesthesiologist. “Can you count for me from 10 to 1?”

At 8, the patient was already asleep.

“Great, now… coffee.”

“Our Hoseok knows all of his ABCs,” Yoongi laughed. “Scalpel.”

Jeongguk passed the instrument and cocked his head to the side, “ABCs?”

“Airway, breathing, coffee,” Hoseok filled in and picked up a magazine; it looked like it could be about dance.

What an odd thing to do, Jeongguk thought, before turning back to Yoongi and passing him everything he requested.

“Anyway, you're telling me that I can't speak to you when it's not related to work?” Yoongi asked, looking up briefly at Jeongguk. “Or maybe you talk to your lovers about your job?”

“I'd rather not discuss this in public.”

“Then maybe I should ask you out?”

Hoseok choked on his coffee and coughed violently, by which Yoongi wasn't impressed. Jeongguk felt heat rising to his cheeks so he looked down and rearranged the instruments to hide the embarrassment. He kept fumbling with them, clearly wanting to buy himself some time.

“Forceps,” Yoongi didn’t wait for an answer, just held up his hand to get the tool resembling blunt-tipped scissors. “I’ll pick you up after I’m out of the newborn surgery.”

“I’m going to be busy,” Jeongguk finally mumbled. “I have a life, you know.”

“Mhm,” Yoongi hummed, clearly not believing the nurse at all. “Shit… I need suction!”

The other OR nurse immediately passed a tool and turned on the machine; the whirring and gurgling soon filled up the room. Jeongguk watched as the blood was cleared out of the cavity by a resident that operated with Yoongi.

“Clamp!” 

After around ten minutes of struggle the bleeding was finally under control. Yoongi made the intern hold the clamp while he himself started fixing the mitral valve. He was silent and focused, with brows knitted closely; Jeongguk caught himself admiring how serious Yoongi looked while working on saving lives. He passed the instruments almost mindlessly, careful not to drop them, or damage Yoongi’s gloves.

“Okay, let’s suture the leak now,” Yoongi said to the resident. “You can do the honors.”

Hoseok gave Yoongi a look, which was promptly ignored by the attending, who was focused on Jeongguk.

“Are you sure you don’t want to grab a drink?” the surgeon asked, before taking a look at his resident’s ongoing work.

“I do,” Jeongguk replied. “Just not with you.”

“Ouch,” Hoseok provided a commentary when he looked up from his magazine. “That was quick.”

* * *

 

Two hours later, they were out of surgery. Jeongguk stretched for a bit, since he felt uncomfortably stiff after such a long time standing, and grunted when he heard his spine crack loudly.

“Are you off now?” Yoongi asked as he put the surgical cap and gown into the respectful bins.

“Yeah, I’m heading home,” Jeongguk replied and fixed his hair a little, fluffing it up with his fingers. “You have another surgery, right? Taehyung really wanted to scrub in on it.”

“Oh… right. But I need to give my own students a chance too.”

“He’s barely on the surgical board at all,” Jeongguk pointed out, leaning on the sink and observing Yoongi.

“Well, that’s not my concern. If he wants more surgeries, he needs to talk to the chief, or to his attending,” the man said, clearly getting a little annoyed with this situation. “He’s not even into cardiology. He’s aiming for pediatric  _ general  _ surgery. If he wanted to specialise in pediatric  _ cardiac  _ procedures, then it would be more appropriate for me to let him scrub in, but he’s  _ not _ interested in what I do. So let me teach those who are willing to apply the knowledge instead of those who just want to spice up their CVs.”

Yoongi stormed out of the scrub room, leaving Jeongguk completely frozen by the sudden outburst. And the man didn’t even shout; he was actually speaking in his normal voice, but something in it made Jeongguk never want to mention to him anything about his friends ever again.

He took off his gown and discarded it, then went to the nurse locker room to change into his street clothes which consisted of light wash jeans, black hoodie, Timberlands, and a beanie He was still puzzled over Yoongi’s reaction — it wasn’t that deep, Jeongguk only wanted to help Taehyung out. Perhaps he struck a nerve by this.

The man sighed and got back to the hotel to pack his things. He had to move that weekend after all, and even though he didn't bring a lot of belongings along with him (he left most in the storage), they were still scattered all over the suite in some miraculous way. He stuffed most of the clothes haphazardly into his suitcase along with some of his toiletries, shoes, hairdryer, accessories, and…intimate novelties of all sorts.

Although it took about an hour, it felt like an eternity for Jeongguk; he wasn't fond of packing — it signaled a change in routine, which he disliked in personal life. He preferred living in one place for a longer period. He guessed the shift in activities should be expected and accepted upon entering the medical field, but he still had a hard time adjusting. The nurse hoped it would eventually get easier.

It wasn't the end of the world — difference in environments could be beneficial to some extent after all. 

So Jeongguk decided to embrace it and hold hope for each new day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check my twitter @taelican, I mostly shitpost tho oops


	3. Save me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to Yunie for being the best beta (and I'll keep your swivel chair suggestion in mind ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) )
> 
> Chapter inspired by Jem - Save me  
> (I highly recommend listening to the songs during reading!!)

Jeongguk had the weekend off, as did Taehyung, so the two were working on moving into their new flat. Taehyung had already finished most of his stuff the previous evening, and lended a hand with Jeongguk’s.

“So, about the other flatmate…” Taehyung started as they were moving boxes to his car. “Just…don’t freak out.”

Jeongguk gave his friend a look, eyebrows knitting together. “What do you mean?”

“Uh… Well, I thought you might find it… weird?” Taehyung stammered, his evasiveness beginning to irritate Jeongguk.

“Spill it, Tae,” Jeongguk challenged, setting a box a little too forcefully in the trunk, making the inside rattle. (That was probably his bondage gear… oops.)

Taehyung sucked in his cheeks. “I think it’s best if you see him for yourself.”

The intern cleared his throat and returned into the storage for the last box, trying to hide his embarrassment; it proved fruitless — Jeongguk spotted his flaming red ears that poked out from under the rim of his black beret. It made him ponder—  _ just who in the world is “that other tenant” _ ? Surely he wasn’t dangerous, because Taehyung would fuck right out of there in a split second if that was the case.

Jeongguk puffed up his cheeks and let out a sigh, wondering what prompted the sudden mystery surrounding the move. In the end he just shrugged it off. He got into the passenger seat to wait for Taehyung, and when the last box was finally loaded, they began making their way over to the new place.

The flat was located pretty close to the hospital in a tall, modern-looking apartment building, which made Jeongguk feel a little bit better about the whole ordeal. At the very least he’d have a place he could actually call his, and it hopefully wouldn’t look like a complete ruin.

* * *

 

Jeongguk watched Taehyung punch the button for the 4th floor, noting the route to his new home.. They walked down the long stretch of hallway before arriving at the door with a brass 14 hanging right above the peephole. Jeongguk studied the apartment number, committing his new address to memory, as the older fumbled a little with his bag to find his keys. After a jumbled awkward silence, he finally fished out a heavily decorated keychain. He then flipped through each of the many keys to find the correct one. Jeongguk stared unimpressedly at the struggle, softly huffing at the stalling. Taehyung shot him a weak smile as he finally slipped the right key into the lock (of course it had to be the  _ last  _ one he checked) and pushed the door open.

The two were welcomed with plain white walls, medium brown laminate panels on the floor, and a white three-level shoe rack with neatly arranged sneakers, house slippers, a pair of Puma running shoes, and a pair of black, a little run down Martens. Above the shoes hung a wall-mounted coat rack with four double hooks, and a shelf for hats and scarves.

Jeongguk took off his shoes and jacket and put them on the shoe rack, still feeling a little awkward in the new place.

“Taehyung?” a familiar gruff voice resounded through the corridor, “I told you not to bring in the new tenant until you tell me who they are.” 

Jeongguk grimaced as the owner of the voice registered in his mind. He hoped that the nerves of meeting his new renter had caused him to draw false connections or that he was jumping to conclusions way too soon. Adhering his fears, a mop of black hair poked out from  the left of the hallway; at that point, Jeongguk still pleaded that he had simply misheard, but when the man looked up to reveal his face, he just accepted his doomful fate.

Yoongi halted mid-hallway and just stared at the two friends who still stood frozen by the door. Jeongguk could only stare back in horror, his mouth agape. The seconds ticking slowly, he took the opportunity to take in the image of his austere co-worker. He was wearing an oversized flannel, tapered sweatpants, and mismatched socks. Seeing him this way was so… shockingly intimate in a sense.  _ Oh no,  _ Jeongguk panicked,  _ he’s cute _ .

“I’ll make coffee!” Taehyung blurred and dashed to the open kitchen.

* * *

 

After Yoongi assured that he wouldn't throw him out, Jeongguk decided to relax at least a little bit before dealing with the heavy boxes (though it wasn't easy; you usually don't just share a flat with a shining star of cardiac surgery). Though, eventually, the three went to get them from the car (Jeongguk made sure it was him who handled his sex toy stash), load them into an elevator, and carry into the vacant room.

The space wasn't very big, but it was enough for Jeongguk. There was a white desk with a comfy looking swivel chair right by the window, a desk lamp, a square white fluffy rug (it was stained pink on one corner…), and most importantly, a click-mechanism sleeper sofa that looked like it could fit two people (with bonus storage underneath!)

Next to the bed stood a white triple door closet. Jeongguk opened one part and saw that it had shelves, the one next to it had a hanger rod, and the last one had widely spaced shelves, possibly for suitcases — Jeongguk decided to put his fun stash there.

“Need help unpacking?” Yoongi asked, appearing out of nowhere and pulling Jeongguk out of his head so abruptly that he jumped up a little.

“No, thanks,” the nurse mumbled and pushed his (thankfully yet unopened) box full of sex toys a little further in with his foot.

“You left the door open so I thought…”

“No, thanks,” Jeongguk repeated.

“No need to be so hostile,” Yoongi muttered and turned on his heel to leave the messy room. When he was gone, Jeongguk let out a shaky breath and began unpacking.

It took him more than three hours to set up everything the way he wanted. When he finally put the sheets and a blanket on the now unfolded bed, he laid on the mattress, exhaling loudly; it was decided — the universe finds sadistic pleasure in torturing Jeongguk. What in the world was he going to do? And how was he supposed to bring in all his dick appointments to a flat shared with Yoongi, of all people?

A knock pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Do you want pizza?” It was Taehyung.

Jeongguk got up and opened the door. “You could have warned me.”

“About pizza?”

“About Yoongi,” Jeongguk hissed. “What were you thinking?”

“Hey, he's an alright guy,” Taehyung defended. “Why are you so awkward about it? Is it because he asked you out during surgery? It's not like you hooked up with him, you completely ignored him!”

Of course. Taehyung had no idea that Jeongguk was fucked into the mattress by Yoongi, and the nurse had no intention of clearing that up.

“Right. But still. He's an attending… it's just weird,” Jeongguk mumbled, leaning on the doorframe.

“It's more awkward for me, actually. So, pizza?”

Jungkook sighed. “Yeah, pizza.”

* * *

 

In the evening Jeongguk dressed up and put on a cherry flavoured lip gloss (which made his already pigmented lips even more pink — and wet, as a bonus). He took out his sexiest ripped jeans (they hugged his ass in the most perfect places), a striped shirt with a few buttons popped open, and a leather jacket. He decided to put up his hair a little, exposing his brows and forehead, as an afterthought.

“Going out?” Yoongi asked, appearing in the corridor where Jeongguk was fixing his outfit in the tall mirror. In contrast to the nurse, he was still in his sweats but changed the flannel into a black oversized Thrasher hoodie.

“Yeah,” Jeongguk replied curtly, brushing off a stray lash from his cheek.

“Have fun.”

“That I will,” the younger retorted. He put on his chunky Oxfords and left the apartment when he got a call from the taxi driver.

The ride to the club was pretty short, it took only about fifteen minutes to stop by it — though Jeongguk never intended to go to this one. Instead he went a few buildings ahead to a gay club in the underground. A sultry song filled the air, making the crowd sway to the rhythm with their partners.

Jeongguk took off to the bar and asked for tequila. He downed a few shots before paying and then wiggled in between the bodies to get to the dancefloor; he was looking for a beefy dude who could do him just right — preferably ram him into the mattress from behind while slapping his ass until it's bright red. Jeongguk groaned a little at the lewd thoughts. He began dancing, ‘accidentally’ brushing against bodies and sending suggestive looks to some. Soon he was approached by a man with arms to die for; Jeongguk smiled at him (he was glad he reapplied lip gloss a few times over) and put his hands on the muscular torso of the stranger.

“You come here often?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard over music.

“Not really,” the stranger replied. “Do you?”

Jeongguk shook his head a little and got closer, still dancing. He slowly moved to the edge of the dancefloor, trying to lure the man out. At this point he was just dying to get fucked. Luckily the stranger complied, grabbing him by the ass a few times. He finally pinned Jeongguk to the wall and bit his neck, leaving a dark mark on the currently unblemished skin.

“Let's get out,” he said and took Jeongguk's hand.

“To mine?”

“Sure.”

The two impatiently waited for the taxi, Jeongguk's mind pleasantly clouded by tequila. He's never had sex sober in his entire life. Each time he was under influence of alcohol (the amount varied but most of the time it was black-out level). It was fun, it was casual, and it didn't lead to any uncomfortable confrontations. The worst thing he could get was an STD but he always had a condom on him so really, not much of a risk anyway.

The taxi took the two to the apartment building; they managed to enter without much noise but when they tried to took off their shoes, Jeongguk knocked over the rack.

“Leave it,” the stranger mumbled, tugging on Jeongguk's hand. He promptly did, and engaged in a sloppy make out session with the beefcake — they went wall to wall, with Jeongguk leading them slowly to his bedroom; the two had to go through the living area which seemed to be occupied by Yoongi. He only spared the wrestling lovers a quick glance before returning to his book. Good sign, Jeongguk thought. He opened the door and felt the soft mattress under his back as he fell on it with a soft thump. 

The rest was a blur: the prep, the stretching, messy kisses and low groans that quickly built up to loud moans with scratches along the spine. Jeongguk tried to muffle his sounds with a pillow but it proved fruitless — he was probably heard by the neighbours, let alone the other tenant.

“F-faster…” Jeongguk pleaded, arching his back from pleasure; his fists balled up, grabbing the sheets in a vain attempt to control his body. “Oh my god, faster!”

He didn't even know when he came all over the bed; he just collapsed on the mattress and panted erratically. Jeongguk looked over his shoulder to see the stranger grab a wet wipes to clean them both off.

“So what's your name, Bambi?” the man asked after he laid down next to the nurse. He covered them with a blanket that was previously bunched up on the other side of the bed.

“Do you really need to know?” Jeongguk questioned. He sat up, still covering himself with the fluffy blanket.

“I don't need to, but I sure want to.”

“... Fine. It's Jeongguk,” the nurse mumbled with an eyeroll.

“I'm Minho. You felt great,” the man dropped a casual compliment while giving Jeongguk a killer smile.

“I usually do but thanks, I appreciate it.”

Minho turned off the bedside lamp and lay on his side, back turned to Jeongguk. Well, at least there was no random awkward cuddling. The younger sighed and followed suit, trying to fall asleep. Luckily, with alcohol in blood, it took very little time to doze off.

* * *

 

  
In the morning Jeongguk woke up to a headache and an empty bed. Finally someone who could do this hookup thing right! The man put on boxers, a t-shirt, and a pair of sweatpants to lounge around on this fine Sunday morning. He could smell a delicious breakfast being cooked up in the kitchen so he naturally turned there.

In the kitchen, his hookup was frying eggs and cooking rice in company of Yoongi, of all people. Jeongguk sighed and sat on the barstool by the counter.

“Morning,” Minho said with a sickeningly sweet smile. Jeongguk just glared at him and turned to Yoongi.

“Got any painkillers?” he asked, still scowling due to the brightness spilling from the window.

“Upper cabinet on the right,” Yoongi replied, pointing to said place with a small hand wave. “So, you were saying?”

“Ah, yeah. So we were in the field, a hospital was over two hundred kilometres away, everything was a complete mess. And this guy couldn't breathe, his face was smashed in so I had to trach him right there and then,” Minho explained, gesturing wildly. “Listen, it. Was. Amazing. I told the other doctor to take out my water bottle, disassemble it and pass me the rubber straw that was inside.”

“But what about the bleeding? You were so far away, with limited supplies, weren't you worried about it? And pneumothorax, and, and clots blocking the straw?” Yoongi asked, looking beyond excited. Jeongguk downed two pills with water and leaned on the counter to observe the two. It took all of his strength not to scoff.

“I was worried about this stuff all the time. But the helicopter soon arrived, with more supplies, an actual tracheotomy kit, and we could intubate him with a bag instead of my breath. That was a close call,” continued Minho while scooping the eggs on plates while Yoongi put some kimchi and rice in bowls.

“Christ, I'm not sure I'd be able to do it,” Yoongi marvelled while looking at Minho as if he was some superstar. “In the middle of warzone… soldiers are something else.”

“I'll take it as a compliment,” Minho smiled and turned to Jeongguk, “want some?”

Jeongguk took one plate and a set of chopsticks before storming off to his room without a word. God, why was his hookup making friends with his flatmate? With  _ Yoongi _ , the sole reason of him getting into someone's pants in the first place! And the eggs were  _ great. _ His day was starting bad and there were no signs of improvement.

He soon finished and went to put the dishes in the sink. Minho was still there. This time Jeongguk groaned for real.

“Out,” he said.

“H-huh?” Minho put down his utensils and looked at the nurse.

“Out. I want you to get out of here! Now!”

“Jeongguk, calm down!” Yoongi stepped in. “If you wanted him to leave, you could have just said it politely. Did nobody ever teach you manners?”

“Did nobody ever teach you not to pry into somebody else's business?” barked back the nurse. “…Forget it.”

The youngest turned around and took his hospital bag, along with shoes and a jacket, and left. He walked briskly to the facility, crisp morning air hitting his face. Voluntary double shift on the weekend? Sounded more amazing now than ever.

_ This is a nightmare _ , he thought,  _ somebody save me from myself! _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow @taelican on twitter to see more shenanigans


	4. Closest to heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god this took too long for me to write and edit and then school piled up JESUS anyways enjoy <3 as always thank you Yunie for being my beta <33

Jeongguk soon arrived at the hospital; the smell of antiseptic, the creaking of shoes on the polished linoleum floor, the gentle murmur from behind the cafeteria door — all of it felt like home. The nurse went to get changed into his scrubs, cherishing the peace of the locker room. When he was ready, he stepped into the ER. There's always work in the ER.

“Aren't you off today?” Yugyeom asked when Jeongguk came up to the desk to get assigned.

“I am. But I want to be here,” Jeongguk replied while looking over the chart. “I'm just… not settling in well.”

“Oh, the new apartment! What's going on?”

Jeongguk shrugged and went over to a bed to hang up an IV bag for the patient before going back to the desk where Yugyeom was still making notes.

“It's just… ugh. How am I supposed to live with him…” he mumbled and passed the chart over. “I mean, I'd rather live with some else but it's already done and I'm frustrated because I feel like I'm gonna share my whole life with him and—!”

“Whoa, whoa, who is this ‘he’ you're talking about?” Yugyeom put away his pen and looked at his friend. Jeongguk looked back, eyes like those of a beaten puppy.

“Yoongi. The other tenant is Yoongi,” he whispered so that the person sitting at the desk wouldn't hear.

Yugyeom took a full minute to process that information. When he finished, Jeongguk was already gone with the new assignment. The senior nurse waited for his friend to come back but was soon pulled into work as well. It wasn't a very busy day. Only a few broken bones, some elderly patients with various heart conditions, and one kid with a small toy stuck up his nose. Yugyeom looked at the desk and saw Kim Jinhee, the chief of surgery, talking over the phone with her eyebrows knitted together. She talked for a little while and then sighed after finishing the conversation. She cleared her throat.

“Alright guys, there's a huge trauma incoming, possibly thirty people injured are being transported here, another twenty are still on site. Wonho, you and your team are going into field, the rest stays here to help!” She shouted commands. “Patients who aren't urgent are going to be discharged, so clear out the beds!”

Jeongguk walked up to Yugyeom. “What happened?”

“Trauma. Not sure what's going on though…”

They didn't have to wait long for an answer. The TV that was on in the ER shown a collapsed burning building with a tag of breaking news.

“Christ…” Jeongguk mumbled and quickly finished charting the last patient he had. “Is the burn unit fully staffed?”

“No idea… they're probably paging the whole staff to see who is available.”

Soon, the first victim was inside the ER, a doctor sitting on top of them doing chest compressions while another one was bagging. They rode past Jeongguk into trauma room 1 and from the corner of his eye, he saw a fibula  _ and  _ tibia sticking out in the right leg, and a broken femur penetrating the skin in the left one. A crash cart was wheeled in right behind the gurney and the door to trauma 1 was closed. There was no time to think because the second patient was already heading in the direction of the surgical wing, and he saw Yoongi waving at him. He even brought Minho but soon delegated him to the chief of surgery.

Great. Now all of his boys were here.

“Jeongguk, I'm scrubbing in, heart and lungs punctured by broken ribs. A piece of cement fell on the poor girl. You're with me?” He asked, running up to the nurse; he was still in his street clothes with a trauma gown on top. “Jeongguk?”

“I… yeah. I'm in.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Why did you bring that guy here? Why was he even still in the apartment?” Jeongguk asked while scrubbing his skin with a brush. He looked to Yoongi who cleaned under his nails.

“He's a doctor who was willing to step up during emergency. Besides he's a very interesting person. Just because you used him to get off doesn't mean that's all he's good for,” said Yoongi, his eyes on his fingers at all times. “You seem to be good at throwing people out though.”

“Are we  _ really _ going there?” Jeongguk dropped the brush into the sink with huge force. “Really?”

“Yeah, we are. Because you bring strangers to  _ my _ house first thing right after moving in. And then you treat them like crap,” Yoongi, in contrast to Jeongguk, put the reusable scrub brush into a sterilisation bin, having finished with washing. “So either stop fucking around or just go to their place.”

Jeongguk scoffed and picked up his brush to continue the wash. Soon after he went into the OR, got his hands dried by another nurse, and then gowned. The sterile instruments shone in the bright lights of the room. The girl was already put under so Yoongi could begin the procedure.

He cut the layer of skin and muscles and reached the sternum. Then with a saw, he cut the bone in half and retracted the two pieces to have a clear view of the chest cavity. Yoongi was pretty quick with removing the fractured ribs and then adding packing to temporarily contain the bleeding from around the lungs. It took a long time but soon Yoongi was able to work on repairing the tear in the wall of the right ventricle.

“I need more suction, come on,” he said to a resident standing beside him. “Clear out that damn blood, I can't see anything!”

Blood pressure was quickly dropping, you could see the heart trying its best to pump blood but it was failing.

“Just…one…one more stitch, come on…” Yoongi mumbled, suturing the breach in the ventricular wall.  As soon as he was done, the heart stopped completely. “Paddles! Charge to ten!”

The heart got one shot. Then a stronger one, then another. Jeongguk looked at Yoongi and begged the universe not to shit all over their day. Finally, the heart began to beat again, with no more blood pouring into the chest cavity. The surgeon let out a shaky sigh and then began to repair the bigger tears in lungs.

“Okay, let's close her up,” Yoongi said after an hour of fight; he nodded to the resident and she took over. Jeongguk remained in the OR for around thirty more minutes before he could scrub out and get back to the ER.

 

* * *

 

 

The emergency room looked like a battlefield. One of the trauma rooms had blood spilt on the floor, there were still chilling screams of terror coming from the other four; Jeongguk heard a doctor calling time of death from behind a curtain.

Yugyeom was putting up photos of the deceased on a board for the families to identify and claim the bodies. Jeongguk walked over to his friend and held out his hand to help with the batch. The senior nurse was shivering a little, hands trembling as he hung the pictures.

“Hey, are you… alright?” Jeongguk asked, giving his friend a sideway glance.

Yugyeom flinched at the sound but nodded and continued his task.

“Are you really?” Jeongguk tried again.

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” Yugyeom snapped, causing people to look at the two with stern gazes. He glanced around, his gaze daring, and leans in to whisper, “Leave me alone, alright?”

Jeongguk was taken aback so he turned around and almost got stepped on by Minho who had just discarded a bloodied trauma gown.

“Sorry,” the nurse mumbled and tried to go past his last hookup but he grabbed him and pulled to the side.

The small space was void of people, and despite the chairs looking very welcoming, the two didn’t take a seat.

“I know we were a one time thing but I don't want us to part like that,” Minho said, still holding Jeongguk's forearm.

“Like what?”

“Unfinished,” he explained.

“Well, I think you finished nicely on my back so I don't know what you mean,” Jeongguk shook off Minho's hand. “So let's just never see each other ever again.”

“That's—that's not what I meant!” protested Minho, blushing furiously.

“So can you just—just stop! Alright? Stop! I don't want to have anything to do with you unless I'm drunk!” The nurse stomped away to the desk and picked up a random chart to at least pretend he's busy. He took a look and saw that it was pointless — the patient was already dead. 

Jeongguk exhaled shakily and rested his elbows on the desk, wanting to get a hold of himself somehow. The adrenaline was wearing off quickly after the last trauma was treated — the shouting subsided at last. The nurse felt a hand on his back so he turned around.

“Are you holding up?”

It was Yoongi. He looked tired, eyes droopy and framed with dark circles.

Jeongguk just nodded mindlessly and got back to looking for work to do; that was the only thing that could take his mind off of the whole mess. He wished his private life was kept separate from his professional career.

“Are you really though?” Yoongi persisted and leaned on the desktop, arms crossed on his chest. He pierced Jeongguk with a sharp gaze. Finally, the nurse gave in. There was no point in denying what had been going on.

“No, I'm  _ clearly _ not okay. I hate people meddling in my personal business! And that's all that happens in this fucking hospital! This isn't some TV show!” He snapped, facing Yoongi at last.

To his surprise, the doctor smiled, actually  _ chuckled _ . He took the younger's hand and pulled him into an elevator, and then into an on-call room. Come on, don’t let yourself be dragged anywhere, Jeongguk thought. He locked the door and before Jeongguk could protest, he kissed him on the lips, arms wrapping around the nurse's waist.

Why Jeongguk let it happen was beyond him. He just gasped lightly and hugged Yoongi tighter, pushing him against the wall. Everything was heated, hectic, almost passionate; strong steady hands sliding across bodies, tongues tying together… soon their scrubs landed on the floor, leaving them only in underwear.

“W-wait…” Jeongguk mumbled. “What are we doing…”

“I…thought it was pretty clear, especially when our clothes started coming off,” Yoongi replied, trying to pull Jeongguk on top of the squeaky bed but the nurse froze in his spot.

“That's, that's not going to happen,” Jeongguk mumbled and gathered his baby blue scrubs from the floor frantically. He put the shirt on front to back, trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible. “I'm sorry, but that's not how I do things, that's not my style… I-”

“Hey, calm down. I'm not going to force you into anything,” said Yoongi as he approached Jeongguk. The younger quickly backed off, raising his hands like he had to protect himself from an attack. “Just stay with me a little.”

The nurse shook his head and escaped the room as quickly as he could manage. He fixed his shirt and ran to the elevator to go down back to the ER. His breath was quick, heart beating way too fast for it to be healthy. Once the door opened he tried to naturally blend in with the rest of the staff and pretended to be busy so that next time someone approaches him it won't be obvious how anxious he was.

 

* * *

 

 

Jeongguk’s first shift ended at 7pm, so he took a small break before starting his second shift. He ate dinner in the emptying cafeteria and got back to work; the ER was eerily quiet for, well, an ER. The young nurse noticed Yoongi talking to a dimply doctor, probably consulting before heading home.

Yoongi looked at Jeongguk briefly and then averted his gaze, which honestly felt like a slap to the face — as if everything was a mistake. Well it was! But…why in the world it felt so good? With Yoongi’s arms around his waist… heaven. The closest to heaven he’s ever got while sober.

Jeongguk scoffed and shook his head at himself before taking a chart to work on. He did the usual drill: asked patient’s name, performed an EKG, reported to a free doctor. He repeated the process for one more person because now that the chaos of the building collapsing had been resolved, there weren’t many patients to treat — most of the people were told to go to a different hospital.

The nurse spent most of the shift at the nurse station, sitting on a couch and scrolling through social media. The twitter timeline was full of the people grieving over the catastrophe and sending condolences to families. It made Jeongguk feel even worse, and by 7am, he had such a bad mood, and was so tired, that he'd rather just drown himself in a bottle of soju rather than deal with reality.

On the way back to the apartment (he could hardly call it home), Jeongguk went into the convenience store and bought a few bottles of his favourite alcohol to drink himself into stupor in the comfort of his room.

Yoongi's place was empty — thank whatever higher force there is — so Jeongguk threw his shoes carelessly onto the rack before locking himself up.

_ To all the things I'll fuck up in this life _ , Jeongguk thought and took a sip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on twt @taelican where I usually retweet and write about how stressed I am <3


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